SPRING FORWARD ~ FRIDAY

Don't forget we Spring Ahead on March 11th, 2018!

AROUND THE SCHOOL

March 11th:  Spring Forward
March 12th-16th:  IREAD *3rd Grade
March 15th:  Family Nature Night
March 16th: Wear Green &
 End of 3rd Quarter
March 23rd:  Reports Card Day!
March 26th - March 30th:  Spring Break
April 2nd:  School Resumes


LANGUAGE ARTS


1st Grade: Persuasive Writing:  This group had some SmartBoard review on Monday.  We were working on our paragraph writing and took some time to review the hamburger model.  Next it was onto them preparing their persuasive writing on the topic:  Should parents buy first graders cellphones?   We had a quick reminder me that it was their job to convince me of their point of view.  Next week they will present their writing to the class.

2nd Grade:  The Tale of Despereaux:  This group continues to amaze me with how in depth they are going with their discussions.  We got behind schedule this week from all of our discussions on the book.  In chapter 8 our author suggests that the reader looks up the word perfidy - so we used this as a perfect opportunity to have a refresher on the vocabulary map.  We discovered that this word meant an act of betrayal.  This allowed them to understand further what truly took place in chapter 8 - Lester, Despereaux's father, betrayed his son.  We will read on to find out Despereaux's fate!
HOMEWORK:  Please read chapters 10 & 11.


3rd Grade:  SPARK:  These guys were full of great ideas this week!  We took the students top picks from their lists and went into a friendly debate on ideas on if they meet the parameters we outlined.  Some of the ideas required us to add onto our requirements safety and a new idea to the school.  As we discussed in detail the two ideas, it became clear that most students were beginning to favor one idea.  It seems to be meeting the parameters, which we will continue to check, as we plan out the idea.

MATH

1st Grade:  Think Deeply:  WOW!  These guys completed a lot of work this week.  First, they had to complete the writing portion to their Think Deeply question.  After that, it was time for our next Chapter Check-up.  

This one covered angles and our two ways to sort our shapes with the loop game and Carroll Diagrams.  As in the past, I will look over the scores to see if they need a day to review any topics before we move onto our next chapter.




2nd Grade:  Think Deeply:  We took some more time to finish our floor designs this week.  This led us into a discussion on visualizing the shapes that we cannot always see when looking at our 3D shapes.  Then it was time to wrap up our lesson with our Think Deeply question.




Dru and Teller wanted the students to identify how many of our shapes they could utilize in a floor design that would have a square face.  They also asked them to pick one of those blocks and describe it in detail:  the color, size, faces, numbers and edges.  We added one last detail of telling Dru and Teller the name of the shape they chose.  

They did a great job completing this question.


3rd Grade:  Mental Math:  This week we started our new concept of mental math.  The first lesson has us focusing on adding 3 numbers mentally using either the commutative or associative property.  

They have a strong grasp and seem to favor using the commutative property.  This allowed us to give more attention to the associative property. 


 The associative property allows the students to regroup to make an easier problem.  We had two different strategies for the associative property.  First, we can pull out and add all the ones and tens and then combine the answers.  Our second way of regrouping allows them to round to add quickly, but they must remember to subtract at the end. 
 An example:  
19 + 28= 20 + 30 = 50 -3=47  
OR  
19 + 28 = 9 + 8 = 17  10 + 20 = 30  30 + 17 = 47
 

We will continue working with these properties next week.






4th Grade:  Adding Fractions:  This group was challenged this week to think about adding fraction in a different way.  I know they have been working on adding fractions with the same denominator or by finding a common denominator.  However, this week they were asked to look at fractions with different denominators and estimate if the answer is less than 1, equal to 1 or greater than 1.  
My visual learners loved this, however it challenged my other friends that just wanted to work it out!  Thinking of their fraction strips and the actual sizes to the pieces was how they needed to think to solve the problems this week.  We ended the week by looking at a set of fractions and finding two different combinations on ways we could add them up to one without using a common denominator.  This helped them understand the relationship of size to to a set of fractions. 
 We will continue working with fractions next week.

Have a Great Weekend,

Ms Losinski